51. Debt of Honor

Nick runs into a high school friend,
John Griffith (Anthony Michael Hall) at the funeral of his boyhood
buddy, Joe Fratello (Phillip Mitchell). Griffith and Fratello had
been inseparable mates and both served in Operation Desert Storm,
where Fratello was killed. Shortly after the funeral, Fratello's malevolent
and vengeful ghost pays a visit to Griffith who in turn, seeks Nick's
help. With the help of fellow Legacy member, Kristin, Nick discovers
the mysterious circumstances behind Fratello's death and tries to
figure out why Fratello seeks to destroy his old friends.

A military funeral for Joe Fratello is concluding with
taps and a 21-gun salute. Nick, wearing a black suit and
beige raincoat, stands next to a woman dressed in black.
A man, John Griffin, walks up to the graveside just as
the flag is folded. A soldier in full dress uniform then
comes up and hands the folded flag to the woman. At the
end of the ceremony, she turns, embraces Nick and thanks
him for coming. She then turns and receives condolences
from John Griffin. Mrs. Fratello then leaves the grave
with her escort.

John saying "Nick, I was going to call you,
buddy" hugs Nick. John tells him that he couldn't
believe it when the military finally identified Joe's
remains, since he was missing in action for so long. As
they begin walking towards their cars, Nick comments that
it's been a long time since Desert Storm. John agrees
saying at least Joe finally got a decent burial. As they
walk, another man joins them and John introduces him as
Bob Meyer. He was also the 313th infantry unit
with Joe and him. Bob comments that John told him a lot
of stories about the trouble they all got into in high
school. Nick grins, "He lies like a rug." John
remembers how they got caught sneaking a pig into the
faculty lounge. Bob, curious, asks how they found out it
was them. Nick replies "the pig squealed." He
recalls Joe as always being one to kid around. John adds,
"not to mention the best third basemen around. Took
us to the championships."

They get to their cars and Bob departs first saying he
has to get going. John and Nick decide meet for a beer
sometime. As Nick writes his phone number down he asks
John if he's still the hottest public relations guy in
town. John nods saying, everyone needs a champion. Nick
asks, "Even the rich and famous?" John replies,
"especially the rich and famous." Nick smiles,
hands him the phone number and then departs in his
mustang with the top up.

Later that night- Griffin's house

John drives up to his house late at night, enters, and
sees it's ransacked. Papers are all over the floors and
the house is in a shambles. The phone is off the hook and
he can hear the beeping of the line and the recorded
voice of the operator saying "hang up and try your
call again." He reaches for the receiver with his
right hand, on which he wears a blue stone high school
ring. He clicks the hook then dials the police saying his
name and, "2375 Maple. I'd like to report a break-in
please. Yes, I'll wait." As he waits, he looks at
the desk and sees an overturned picture frame. He picks
it up and looks at the photo of Joe Fratello and himself.
Suddenly the picture fades and is replaced by the ghostly
image of Fratello, asking, "Do you remember
me?" John yells and throws the picture across the
room. The ghostly apparition of Joe, wearing a camouflage
uniform, materializes and advances towards him telling
him menacingly, "There's only one way out. You'll
never get away." John moves away from the desk but
the ghost appears there also, continuing to tell him
he'll never get away. Panicked, John runs out of the
house as the ghost looks at his fleeing figure.

Legacy House - Afternoon - Nicks
room

Nick dressed in sweat clothes, with his hands wrapped,
works out on a punching bag. Kristin walks in the open
door, watches him then says, "very impressive in a
Cro-Magnon sort of way." He keeps punching saying,
"don't knock it till you try it." She enters
farther telling him it's not really her style.
"Although I did read your recommendations to London
house on the applications of Zen to confrontations in the
field. Not bad." Nick stops punching and replies
sarcastically, "I suppose that's as close to good as
I'm gonna get, huh?" She continues, " I thought
it was very thorough as far as it went." Nick looks
directly at her, "Funny, You see I thought it pretty
much covered the area." She smugly replies,
"From a male perspective, absolutely. You only left
out slightly more than half the world's population."
The banter continues with Nick, "that's the only
perspective I have but don't worry, I'm working on my
feminine side." He pats her patronizingly on the
arm.

She turns to leave. Nick unwraps the protective
bandages from his hands and asks her if there was
anything else she wanted to say. "Not really, except
while you were bashing your bag, you had a call." He
tells her "its punching, not bashing." Then he
asks why she didn't call him and she says she did, twice
but "you were punching." She tells him it was
John Griffin and he wants him to meet him at McCrory's
when he can get there. He thanks her and she leaves.

McCrory's batting cage

John Griffin stands inside the batting cage and hits
balls thrown by the pitching machine. Nick wearing jeans,
black sweater, and a brown leather jacket walks up to the
fence and says he didn't expect to hear from him that
soon. Nick mentions he hasn't been there in years. John
replies he comes there all the time since it helps him
deal with stress.

Nick asks him what's on his mind. John says seeing him
at the funeral got him remembering about the good times
they had. Nick replies "we tied a few on." John
recalls he still owes Nick 50 bucks from last year's
World Series. Nick tells him to forget it but John says
it's a debt of honor. "Just can't write that
off." Nick grinning, "cough up the cash. It's
probably the first time in my life I beat you at a bet. I
should cherish the moment." He enters the fence.

While he puts more money in the pitching machine, John
asks Nick if he remembers one night in high school when
Nick tried to get Joe and him to join the Navy and become
SEAL's. Nick grins as he enters the batting cage,
"as I recall, you thought I was certifiably
psycho." John continues, "You said we'd be a
team, back to back we couldn't be beat." Nick picks
up a bat and swings it as he recalls the league finals.
There was a tie score with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th.
Joe was only one hit away from league history and hitting
400. But he sacrificed. John scored and they won. John
grins and tells Nick he still has that ball, then
wistfully asks if Nick still feels that they're a team.
Nick, looking at John quizzically, asks if he's in some
kind of trouble. John tells him he had a strange,
supernatural experience. Concerned, Nick asks for more
detail. John relates it happened right after the funeral.
First he thought someone robbed the place. When he went
to call the cops he saw Joe. Nick replies, "You saw
what? Fratello's ghost?" John says it was Joe, right
there in the living room of his house. Same face, same
uniform. Nick asks if he said anything and John tells him
no. John thinking, adds, he had a weird look on his face.
He guesses he's "going nuts."

Legacy House - kitchen

When Kristen asks Nick how his friend is, he replies
that it's hard to say and tells them John thinks he saw
the ghost of a friend from school, Joe Fratello. Derek
asks if that's the same man from Desert Storm and if he
believes John. Nick tells him he's going to check it out.
Derek adds that it could be a latent reaction to whatever
happened over there. Nick replies, "Could be. 7
years is a long time." When Kristen asks if he
thinks following it up is worth his time, Nick replies
seriously, "Call it a debt of honor."

Late evening  John Griffins
house

John opens the door for Bob Meyer, asking where he'd
been. Bob enters, appearing very nervous and says he
hasn't been home. He worriedly tells him he saw
Fratello's ghost. John tells him to calm down and that
his mind is playing tricks on him. Then he tells him the
same thing happened to him after the funeral. Bob
frantically tells John that Joe follows him wherever he
goes and keeps staring at him. He showed him how he died
and it was horrible. John continues to try to calm Bob,
telling him that whatever is out there, it's just his
imagination working overtime. He tells him Fratello's
death was a tough break and suggests he forget about it.
Bob continues to worry that he's after him. John again
encourages him to put it out of his mind. He ushers him
to the front door at that point and tells him to get some
sleep and reassures him there has to be a rational
explanation to this. "You have to block this stuff
out of your head." Bob is relieved, thanks him and
leaves after telling John "you're always so smart
about everything."

Bob's car - that night

Bob walks nervously to his car, talking to himself,
telling himself to go home and get some sleep. As he gets
to his car he hears Fratello's ghost goading him and
asking him where he's going  "what's the
rush?". Bob, terrified, yelling, "leave me
alone," gets out of the car and runs. He hears
Fratello's voice and it confronts him telling him there's
only one way out. "Jump. Do it now." Fratello
screams and a ghostly wind blows Bob off the overpass.
The ghost looks down at his body before vanishing.

Legacy Kitchen - next morning

Nick drinks a cup of coffee as he reads an article in
the newspaper about Bob Meyer's death. Derek comes in,
pours coffee and seeing the look on Nicks face, asks,
"You all right?" Nick replies yeah and tells
him that Meyer, the guy he met at the funeral, committed
suicide. Derek remarks that some people take things
harder than others do and maybe the funeral triggered a
deep-seated emotion he wasn't able to deal with. Nick
agrees but mentions he just didn't seem that broken up at
the funeral, certainly "not enough to off
himself." Derek suggests that something really
rattled him. Nick looks at Derek, thinking.

Library

Kristen reads when Derek comes in. Commenting that
Nick left in a hurry, she asks if he is always that hard
on himself. Derek tells her it was the way he was brought
up, "If you never take the easy way out, you're
always ready for the worst." Derek reassures her
that he's much tougher on himself than others to which
she replies she hasn't noticed that. He tells her to he's
never known Nick not to recognize talent and suggests she
give him time. He tells her Nick went to his friend's
house and tells her about Bob Meyer's suicide. Puzzled,
she asks if that's just a co-incidence. Derek replies
that what Nick hopes to find out.

He then mentions that he talked to the head of Boston
house that morning and she's still holding her place
there, assuming that she wants it. Kristen replies she
still has unfinished business regarding her father and
wants the freedom to follow those leads until they're
resolved. He tells her legacy bylaws prevent other legacy
members from staying in the Houses unless they have
official business there. Then he grins deviously and says
that's why I told her I requested your services on an
"as-needed basis." Kristen replies she can't
believe the precept agreed. He replies that the precept
accused him of stealing her. His response was that
Kristen was too intelligent for that and that if she
didn't believe him she was welcome to "try to steal
you back." Kristin asks if Derek always gets what he
wants and he replies, "not always." They both
smile.

Griffin's house

John is on a business call in his office. As he talks,
he tosses a baseball and catches it. The intercom at the
front door buzzes and it's Nick who tells him he tried to
call on the way over in the car but couldn't get through
and now he's outside. John buzzes him in and gets off the
phone as Nick enters. Nick glances around the expensive
house and then, as John completes his call, remarks,
"nice dump" John tosses the ball to Nick, who
catches it in his right hand, lets it roll up to his
elbow and back down a few times, then holds it up. He
recognizes it as the game-winning ball from the league
finals.

Then, seriously, Nick asks if he read the paper this
morning. John tells him he gets all the news he needs
from the Internet. Nick sighing, puts the ball down and
tells him that Bob killed himself the previous night by
jumping off an overpass. John is surprised and tells him
it can't be right because he saw him the previous night
between 9:30 and 10 pm. Nick tells him that Bob was dead
by 10:15. Nick questions how well John knew him and he
replies they were in the Gulf together; and they talked,
on and off, every few months. Nick asks what Bob wanted
the previous night. John shakes his head and lies, money.
He tells Nick Bob had been playing the commodities and
when the gold futures went belly up he took a bath. John
loaned him a couple bucks, never expecting to get it
back. Nick asks him if Bob said anything about seeing
Fratello's ghost and Griffin denies it. Nick makes eye
contact with John who breaks it and looks away. Then he
says it's a shock and that he's really shook up about
Bob. Nick says, "why don't I come back later,"
and leaves telling him he'll see himself out.

Control room

Kristin is doing a Legacy Netsearch as Nick enters.
She's just downloaded and has a photo and an article
about Bob Meyer up on the screen. Nick responds angrily
and asks, "what the hell is this?" Kristen
calmly replies that "it's good to see you too."
She then asks why he got defensive, since she's just
doing research. Still angry, Nick asks whose idea it was.
She tells him, "You really are something."
Since he's always preaching teamwork around there she
thought he'd be impressed someone took the initiative to
find out where they were stationed during Desert Storm.
Nick replies that Desert Storm was ancient history.
Kristen quickly retorts, "so was every other battle
fought there in the last 4000 years." Nick, "so
what?" Kristen calmly replies, "So. Fratello
died there. If we knew the exact location I might be able
to help."

She puts up a map of the location of Desert Storm and
shows they were 60 miles from Asbusaiya and 11 or 12 from
the border. He sarcastically says "and a million
miles from a real assessment of the problem." She
doesn't get upset, instead says, "maybe." She
tells him that back in 94 she spent the better part
of the year in the middle east cataloging ancient burial
sites for the Smithsonian and there are some ancient ones
around there. These sites may explain why Fratello's
spirit isn't at rest 7 years after his death. "If I
find anything out, I'll give you a shout." Nick
responds curtly, "do that."

Griffin's house

John Griffin is on the phone when he hears the ghost
telling him he's next, then the call goes dead. Griffin
hangs up startled. Across the room, the fax machine
starts and he goes to it and finds a fax of Fratello's
face. Panicked, he unplugs it and returns to the desk,
leaning against it for support. Suddenly the unplugged
machine starts again. He returns to the fax and picks up
the paper. There's another picture, but this time when he
looks at it, Fratello's eyes open. John looks away just
as Fratello's ghost materializes and advances towards him
asking, " Remember Johnny? No way out. No
escape." John covers his ears yelling, "you
aren't real. You're dead." Fratello continues,
"you can't run, you can't hide. You'll never get
away."

Legacy house - foyer

Nick looks at the black fax pages as Griffin tells him
he saw the ghost. Nick tries to calm him down and asks
what was faxed to him. John agitated replies,
"Fratello's face  its right there." Nick
hands him the black pages. John defensively says he can't
believe it, since just seconds before he gave them to
Nick, he saw the ghost's image there. Nick asks him why
Joe would come after him. "Did anything go down
between you guys? I know this is tough on you, but you,
me and Joe were buddies, there must be something."
Griffin denies anything happened saying that after Basic,
Joe asked to be reassigned so they could be in the same
unit. Nick asks how he died. Griffin says he was a supply
sergeant in the 313th, which was strictly back
up. Joe was part of perimeter defense team. When things
got hot a couple Iraqi tanks had gotten behind their left
flank and Joe was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nick asks where it happened and Griffin says a couple
clicks south of a village called El Shabot. When he asks
why, Nick says he was just curious and that he never knew
the details of his death. Griffin, still shaken asks Nick
if it's real or if he is going nuts. Nick simply replies,
"I don't know."

Derek's office

Derek, wearing a suit, hands over an Army file
chuckling, "God only knows why it's
classified." Nick glances at it commenting, "We
could get more dirt on Disneyland." He then puts the
file on the table and wonders why Fratello didn't' return
fire. There he was, sitting in a bunker with surrounded
by 3 dozen-m72 rocket antitank launchers, "sitting
right there." Derek picks up the file again and
reads, "the conclusions of the inquiry into the
death of Corporal Joseph Fratello; Weapon Malfunction.
Signed: Colonel F. Rollins, Commanding Officer."
Nick doesn't believe it; and says the M72's are single
shot disposable tubes with 99.5% efficiency. "What
are the chances of all 36 going south?" Derek,
"highly unlikely." Nick, "try
impossible." He asks where Colonel Rollins is now
and Derek tells him he's still in the Army, stationed
with the 313th in Fort Bragg.

Fort Bragg

Derek, wearing a long grey coat and Nick in black
jacket, walk along with a uniformed Rollins as he tells
them that weapons malfunction happens, even in the
computer age. Nick comments that all the weapons could
not have misfired. The Colonel tells them that in combat,
men panic. Derek asks about Meyer and tells him he killed
himself. Rollins replies that he wasn't much of a
soldier. He was a scrounger, wheeling and dealing. He
adds that kind of thing earns a man enemies. The Army
always thought he was into black-market business but
couldn't prove it. They never tied anyone else into his
dealings either. Derek asks about Griffin and Rollins
replies that John Griffin was an exemplary soldier as far
as he can recall. He asks if there is anything else and
Derek says no and thanks him for his help.

Griffin's house

John enters and looks at his mail. The doors unlock by
themselves and the ghost enters. John grabs a baseball
bat and screams for the ghost to get away from him. Nick
drives up, hears the screams and runs to the house and
bursts in. As he enters, he hears Fratello's voice
saying, "there's only one way out." Nick stops
inside the room and sees Griffin striking at the
apparition with a baseball bat. Each time he swings, the
bat passes right through the ghost. "No chance,
Johnny, no way out." Nick, astonished, stares at the
ghost, "Joe." As he does, the ghost looks
directly at Nick then vanishes.

Nick goes to John and helps him up. John asks Nick if
he saw it and he says he did, but "the question is
why?" There has to be a reason. He helps him upto
a chair and asks how well he knew Bob Meyer in the Gulf.
"Was there any chance he had his fingers in the
till?" John replies, "Bob?
Stealing?" Nick goes on, "A little side action.
Black market?" Griffin repliesanything is
possible but he was mostly worried about doing his own
job.

Then, Nick asks John if he had anything to do with
Fratello's death. John is upset at the question and tells
Nick that both he and Joe are like brothers to him. Nick
apologizes, and says he had to hear it from him. He then
sees a picture of the 3 of them that was taken in the
photo booth at Candlestick Park the night the Giants won
the pennant and is surprised he still has it. In it, the
3 of them had gotten themselves in the booth at 2 seconds
intervals. John says proudly, "One of a kind, split
second timing." Nick adds, "Teamwork
baby." He tells Griffin to get some sleep and he'll
crash on the couch. "If Fratello's spirit comesback,
then he'll have to deal with me too."

Next morning

Nick returns to the house and joins Kristen and Derek
in the library. On the way down the library steps Derek
thanks Nick for calling the previous night, and asks if
they saw the ghost again. Nick says, no, he thinks the
ghost is nocturnal so he doubts he'll show up during the
day. Nick sits down at the table in the library with
Kristen. Kristin and Derek tell Nick they checked
backgrounds and the bank records make interesting
reading. After the war Meyers came into lots of money. 6
figures. They then checked the black market and found
that M72s were going for 50,000 cash after the war. They
believe it cost Fratello his life and his spirit wants
revenge.

Nick agrees that the spirit wants revenge on Meyers,
but wonders why on John and asks if he's guilty by
association. Derek says calmly, "I don't know how to
say this, Nick, but there's a strong chance that Griffin
is in deeper than you thinks he is." Nick, unwilling
to believe, says he'd trust John Griffin with his life.
Kristin continues, telling Nick that after the war
Griffin bought into a very old established PR firm as a
full partner. Nick replies he came from money and Derek
gently tells him he also bought a house for 600 thousand
dollars. In cash. Nick stubbornly replies that's still
not hard proof, and doesn't explain how that connects him
to Fratello. He asks them to cut to the chase. Kristin
rises and tells him there's something he needs to see.

Control Room

Kristen puts up a map and data she downloaded from the
Pentagon, saying she was able to establish the position
of Fratello when he died. It's an area that once was
Mesopotamia. Derek says that Sumerian cosmology explains
the supernatural occurrences. Taking the location of the
bunker and overlaying the map of Sumerian burial sites,
Derek tells him that Joe died in the middle of a
ziggurat, a temple and burial site. The bunkers overlap
the ziggurat. Kristen adds, according to Sumerian death
rites, any person wrongfully killed will walk the earth
wreaking vengeance on those that betrayed him. Kristen
surmised that the moving of the body had something to do
with the reason it took so many years for the ghost to
appear. Derek replies that "Rightly or wrongly,
Fratello's ghost thinks Griffin is guilty." Nick
asks, "what if he's mistaken?" Derek replies
that's what they have to find out. Nick agrees but says,
"I should go alone."

Griffin's house, night

Nick drives up and hears John screaming and firing a
gun. Nick enters with his gun drawn and takes cover.
Shouting, "Johnny, it's Nick" he tells him to
put the gun down. Fratello, on seeing Nick enter,
vanishes. John begins firing again only the gun is empty
now. Hearing the click of an empty chamber, Nick rushes
John, grabs him and demands, "what the hell's going
on? Get a grip!" "What's going on here? Talk to
me, why would Fratello want you dead?" John replies
he doesn't know and it doesn't make sense. Nick, getting
angry demands, "Doesn't it? You want to tell me
where you got the money to buy into the PR firm, not to
mention this house." He replies his dad helped him
put up the money. Nick asks about the rest of the money
and John tells him he found it. Nick incredulous, asks
how he found a couple hundred thousand in cash. John
asks, "what's this about?"

Nick replies "after the war, a number of items
were found on the black market. One of the hot ticket
items was the m72. The same ones that were supposed to be
in Fratello's bunker." He asks if he was stealing
weapons and selling them on the black market. John looks
away and denies it, then asks Nick what he thinks. Nick
replies, "it doesn't matter what I think, what
matters is what Fratello thinks." Nick then asks why
Fratello didn't return fire since he had all the
firepower. "Did he panic. Did he freeze?" He
tells John that he thinks when Joe tore open the crates,
"the question is, what did he find inside, m72's? Or
sand?" John asks Nick why he's doing this. Nick
grabs him and demands the truth. John looking off in the
distance, says he "didn't think it'd matter,
skimming weapons we were never gonna use." Nick
covers his mouth with his hand in disgust. John pulls off
his high school ring and looks at it as he asks if Nick
thinks he wanted him to die? Because they were in
reserve, "nothing was supposed to happen." Nick
looks away and says quietly "but it did." John
repeats, "Yeah, it did. Past tense." In a
whining voice, he asks Nick how he thinks he felt and
that it was painful for him. "There was nothing I
could do about it, and he's gone. It's over." He
stands up and Nick stares at him in disbelief and anger
before saying, "No, it's not." You just don't
get it do you? But that's your problem, you deal with
it." He heads towards the door and John plaintively,
calls, "Where are you going? I need you here. He's
still out there. I thought we were friends. " Nick,
without looking back, leaves saying, "Fratello
thought the same thing."

Outside the house - full moon

Derek drives up behind the mustang as Nick exits the
house. Nick angrily demands to know what Derek is doing
there. Derek replies that after he left, Kristen found
more. Nick tells him, "forget it, I'm out."
Derek replies that he can't, to which Nick says
"watch me" and shoves Derek's arm. Derek
continues trying to convince him to help; "you're
morally bound." Nick disgustedly tells him that
Griffin's morals got lost a long time ago. Derek agrees,
"Yes, but yours didn't." Derek, face to face
with Nick, tells him he can't turn back or he's as guilty
as Griffin. Nick stares at Derek "don't ask me to do
this, I can't. He betrayed everything I believe in."
He turns to get in his car and Derek grabs his coat
telling him to do it for Fratello. He tells him if
Fratello succeeds in killing Griffin he'll be trapped in
limbo and doomed to walk the earth forever. "He must
break the cycle." Nick retorts, "So you tell
him." Suddenly, from inside the house, they hear
glass breaking and screams as Fratello confronts John
again. They hear Fratello saying menacingly, "Go
ahead, get your gun, lock and load. Pull the trigger.
It's time to finish it." The gun fires from inside
the house.

Inside Griffin's house

Nick enters and sees Fratello's ghost standing over
John as he begs, "Joe, if I'd known I never would
have done it." Fratello turns, looks at Nick and
growls a warning. Nick, quietly and sadly advances,
telling Fratello slowly, "Listen to me, you can't do
this. What's done is done. I wish it were different. But
it's not and nothing is going to bring you back."
Suddenly John says piteously, "Don't kill me."
Nick without looking at him, abruptly replies, "Shut
up John."

Nick walks to the desk and puts his own gun down and
picks up the baseball. He asks Joe, "you remember
this? Bottom of the ninth. 1 hit away from the record.
But you didn't go for it. You made the sacrifice and that
is the Joe Fratello I remember." The ghost growls
low as Nick implores, "Let it go Joey."
Fratello distressed looks at John and screams at him, a
rush of wind and heat spewing out of his mouth. Nick
yells "No, Joey! Stop." The ghost stops, turns
and looks at Nick with a sad, pained expression. Nick
holding the baseball up towards him implores "Let it
go." The ghost vanishes amid distant screaming.

Nick stands still and holds the baseball, looking very
sad. Griffin begins to come to him, saying, "Nick,
you son of a b " As he gets very close, Nick,
without looking at him, holds up his arm for him to stop
and keeps him at arms length. John continues, "you
did it." Nick with disgust dripping from his voice,
replies, "Yeah, but not for you. For him. His war is
over." Looking directly at Griffin, Nick concludes
"But yours has just begun." Nick picks up his
gun and still holding the ball, shows it clearly to John
menacingly then he turns and leaves with the ball. With
John screaming his name as he walks out, Nick slams the
door behind him.

Legacy house

Nick, looks off in the distance while a fire burns in
the fireplace of his room. The voice-over says:

"To lose a friend is hard. To be the cause of
his death is even harder. Joe Fratello was a casualty of
Desert Storm but he didn't die alone; he took John
Griffin with him. A little bit at a time for the rest of
his life. I guess Plato said it best, only the dead know
the end of war."